U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,209, issued Nov. 21, 1972, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,929, issued May 15, 1973, disclose molded boot-type horse shoes. The shoes disclosed in these patents are for the purpose of at least temporarily replacing conventional nail-anchored shoes. The shoes are characterized by their employment of a unitary, molded construction including a relatively stiff sole portion and integral upstanding walls of a shape generally conforming to a horse's foot. Urethane is suggested as a suitable plastic composition for construction of such horse boots.
Prior art horse boot constructions have a number of drawbacks. For example, it is often difficult to obtain a correct fit with horse boots of unitary molded construction. Horses have a tendency to throw off such boots. Furthermore, relatively inflexible boot constructions of the type known in the prior art can injure or damage soft tissue of the animal due to rubbing. Also, of course, leg movement can be impeded. Another deficiency in prior art approaches resides in their use of rather complex and relatively expensive connectors to attach and detach the boot relative to the horse.